Israël en Gods koninkrijk hand in hand

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In vele kerkgemeenschappen wordt er maar lat ingezien dat ontegensprekelijk Israel een rol zal spelen in de terugkeer van Jezus en volbrenging van het Koninkrijk van God.

Zo ontdekte Ruben Ridderhof langzamerhand dat Israël en Gods koninkrijk hand in hand gaan. Na diverse keren naar Israël te zijn gereisd en bij Christenen voor Israël aan het werk te zijn gegaan, drong Gods plan met het Joodse volk langzamerhand bij hem door.

 "Als kerk spelen we een 'supporting rol' ten aanzien van Israël."

Pas laat leerde hij dat binnen Gods boodschap het Joodse volk een belangrijke plek inneemt.

 "Als journalistiek-student liep hij stage bij Christenen voor Israël. Langzamerhand drong tot mij door dat Israël meer is dan alleen een land."

Door de Bijbel te gaan lezen ontdekte hij een rode lijn in het Woord van God. Voortdurend wordt er een link gelegd naar het Joodse volk. Van Abraham tot het Nieuwe Testament.

"Voor mij heeft dat echt Gods Woord geopend en licht gegeven op Zijn plan met Israël."

Ruben staat op de sprekerslijst van Christenen voor Israël.

 "Regelmatig leg ik voor groepen Gods plan met Israël uit,"

maakt hij duidelijk.

 "God koos Israël niet zomaar uit. Het volk van Israël krijgt de belofte mee dat zij een koninkrijk van priesters zullen zijn. De heerser van dat koninkrijk is God Zelf. Via Israël worden alle volken op aarde gezegend. Dat kreeg Abraham te horen in Genesis 12."

Zoals vandaag mensen de Verlosser niet verwachten was het destijds. Ook waren de ideeën over die Verlosser wel anders dan diegenen die Christenen vandaag hebben. Zij zagen uit naar een echte wereldse koning, in politieke zin. Daarover spreken de profetieën in het Oude Testament: een koning op de troon van David die recht en gerechtigheid zou doen en over de wereld zou heersen vanuit Jeruzalem.

Ridderehof vindt dat het mooi zou zijn geweest als naar aanleiding van de gesprekken die Jezus voerde met zijn disicpelen, een bijbelstudieboekje was verschenen.
Vlak voordat Jezus opstijgt naar de hemel, vragen zijn discipelen:

 'Heere, zult U in deze tijd voor Israël het Koninkrijk weer herstellen?'

Ridderehof vond dat altijd een domme vraag.

"Het lijkt of de discipelen nog altijd niet begrepen hebben wat Jezus' koninkrijk inhoudt. Maar in feite is het de meest logische vraag die de discipelen kunnen stellen en de meest relevante, gezien alle profetieën. Wanneer de engelen na Zijn hemelvaart zeggen: 'Hij zal op dezelfde wijze terugkomen als u Hem naar de hemel hebt zien gaan', valt bij de discipelen het profetische kwartje. Als Jezus straks terugkomt, zullen de profetieën worden vervult. Dan komt Hij als koning in heerlijkheid."

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Bemoedigingssamenkomsten

Zaterdagavond moest de climax van de week worden voor vele Belgen. Hiervoor moesten in vele geloofsgemeenschappen, waaronder ook de onze, moet ik toegeven, keuzes gemaakt worden om voor lege banken te zitten of de dienst af te lassen. Vele zaterdagavond diensten in België werden voor alle zekerheid ook afgelast omdat zij door het omgevingsgeluid toch ook te veel zouden gestoord worden. Vele kerken bevinden zich namelijk rond dorpspleinen of openbare ruimten waar de menigte samenkwam om de voetbalmatch België-Argentinë te zien.

Ook Nederland kamte met hetzelfde fenomeen.
Wanneer het overgrote deel van Nederland achter een scherm naar Nederland - Spanje zat te kijken was er ook de mogelijkheid God te aanbidden.  Maarten Baan en Christian Verwoerd organiseren namelijk tijdens de wedstrijden van het Nederlands elftal bemoedigingssamenkomsten.

Maarten Baan:

 "Graag willen we als Nederland zo in de ban is van voetbal ons richten op God. Hij verdient veel meer eer, roem en aandacht dan dat WK en wat dan ook op aarde. Juist op zulke avonden - waar het lijkt dat heel de wereld vol is van Koning voetbal, verdient Koning Jezus onze tijd en aandacht! Ik ben er ook van overtuigd dat als we zijn, in de gemeenschap met broeders en zusters, in aanbidding van de hemelse Vader, elke wedstrijd van het WK vervaagt."

Mensne moeten een keuze maken om al of niet koning voetbal te gaan eren of koning Jezus. zij moeten kiezen voor de wereldse geneugten van het rechtstreeks bijwonenen van een voetbalmatch, waar geen leven van af hangt, of het bijwonen van een dienst die iets moet toevoegen aan het geestelijk leven.

Lees ook: "God verdient meer aandacht dan WK"

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Niemand kijkt uit naar komst van Christus

"De Bijbel leert dat niemand God zoekt of verwacht," vertelde Ds. A. Simons, predikant van de hervormde gemeente in Montfoort.

"Ik verlangde niet naar God. Dat wist God van tevoren. Daarom heeft God van jou en mij niets verwacht. Want Hij weet dat er vanuit ons niets goeds komt. Het spijt me. Het lijkt liefdeloos en keihard. Je zou er radeloos van worden. Tenminste, als je het van jezelf verwacht. God heeft zijn Zoon niet gezonden naar mensen die naar Hem uitkeken. Ondanks dat heeft Hij het liefste wat Hij had naar de wereld gezonden. Hoe kunnen wij ‘dode’ mensen dan geestelijk levend worden? Dat is toch onmogelijk?"

Velen willen alles zelf regelen in hun leven en denken dat zij alles zelf kunnen klaren.
God heeft Zijn Zoon gezonden opdat ‘doden’ levend zouden worden. Volgens de prediker ben je als je niet in aanraking gekomen bent met Christus, nog ‘dood’.

"Daarom moeten we levend gemaakt worden. Levendmaking is in aanraking komen met de Zoon van God. Wie levend wordt, gaat verwachten. Kinderen van God hebben verwachting."

Lees meer: "Niemand keek uit naar de komst van Christus"

New Book: More Reasons

New Book: More Reasons 6.99 GBP, plus postage from
www.lulu.com/willowpublications

In many respects the case for faith has never been stronger. The discoveries
of modern physics have provided strong indication that there is an
intelligence behind the universe. A renaissance in Christian philosophy has
provided robust and respected defences against traditional challenges to
theism. Scholars find they can no longer justify the hasty dismissal of the
biblical text as either legendary or outdated. And yet despite these
positive changes religious believers find their sincere convictions
dismissed as ill-founded and irrational. 

In this book a number of authors bring together their various expertise and
experience to continue laying out reasons for believing in God, Jesus and
the Bible. Arguments are drawn from human rationality to the divine
character of the Bible, providing additional support for faith in the modern
world. 
MORE REASONS has been published under the auspices of the Christadelphian
EJournal of Biblical Interpretation : www.christadelphian-ejbi.org 

Contents:

Introduction: Faith in the Modern World
The New Atheists
Evolution, Design and Theism
The Argument from Design
Design and Creation
Arguments from Reason
Human Experience and Evidence for Theism
Spiritual Experiences
Is The Bible Probable?
Other Holy Books
The Protestant Bible
Science and the Bible: Days and Ages
The Divine Character of the Bible
Relating to the BibleAuthors: Colin Attridge, Thomas E. Gaston, John Launchbury, David P. Levin,
Deborah Perrott, Andrew Perry, Dev Ramcharan, Ronnie van Rooyen, Don Styles,
John Thorpe, Paul Wasson

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• Bibliology: Is God's Word Inspired and Mistake-Free?
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Prince George Appeal letter

Prince George Appeal letter

Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 14:24:21 -0700


Dear Brethren and Sisters,
 When Paul was on his second missionary journey he received a message through the spirit of a man from Macedonia asking him to come and help them. (Acts 16:9.)  I am making that same appeal to you. 

 I am the recording brother of a small ecclesia in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada.  Our ecclesia has shrunk to 13 members over the past 10-15 years.  Most of this has been from people moving to other ecclesias throughout North America most of which are still strong, active members of our worldwide ecclesia.

 Prince George is a wonderful place to live and work both in the ecclesia and in our day to day lives.  We function with a Sunday school, memorial meeting, regular mid week Bible class and a sister’s class.  We have had a recent baptism from our seminars and plan to run them again in the fall.  Our Sunday school has 5 children in it with 1 more on the way.  Their ages range from 3 to 9.  There is another even smaller ecclesia in Ft. St. James that we also try and support as much as we can, as it is 2 hours west of Prince George.  We would love to continue to grow in numbers as well as spiritual strength.  Moving here would allow you to work constantly in Gods vineyard to support the ecclesia as well as reaching out to see if there are any other hearts that are open to receive Gods word. 

We would be most grateful if any, young or old, would be willing and able to either visit or relocate to our beautiful part of the world.  There are wonderful educational and employment opportunities in our small community of about 80,000.  Housing is very affordable and you can enjoy all four seasons of weather when you live here.  If you are unable to visit or move to our ecclesia we would appeal to all brothers and sisters in these last days to support and help any ecclesia they can.  The world is pressing ever closer into our ecclesia's.  We need to stay strong and firm in our foundation of God's word in these last days before Christ's return. 

 If you have any further questions please feel free to contact the pgchristadelphians  or by phone 250-962-8191.With love in our Master name.
Jonathan Lawrence

Christadelphian brothers and sisters in Ukraine

Kharkov (Ukraine) RailRoad Station  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Turmoil keeps going on in different parts of the Ukraine.

Sister Elena in Kramatorsk has had to move away to Kiev with her mother and daughter to be away from the bombing.
Bro Alex and Sis Olga in Donetsk had already left to be with their daughter in California on a planned trip before the troubles began.
 

Conditions in Kiev and in the centre of Ukraine are calm. The only area where violence continues is in the big cities on the east.

Sis Veronika in Poltava reports the brothers and sisters are all well, apart from poor health. The brothers and sisters in Pavlograd continue to meet for their breaking of bread in peace.

Bro Charles in Kharkov is short of work in the market because of the national downturn in business, but is well.

There is a general point which will affect all our brothers and sisters - the drop in value of the grivna (it is now worth 20 to the pound instead of 12) has increased prices in the shops. The annual Bible School is planned for August.

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Uprooted Baptists their new idea of baptism

End 1970ies it looked like the Southern Baptitst Union was going to bring too many changes the followers of the original Anabaptists and Baptists could not accept.

From the 1980 onwards lots of disturbance was felt and in the 1990ies many Baptists became very disturbed by the image the public was getting from the Baptist they could see on the small television screen.  The screen at that time still might have been small but the impact was big.

The trinitarian Baptist gained more and more terrain in Europe and wanted to have theri American way of thinking imposed on us Europeans. For many years I resisted to leave the Baptists, because I wanted to honour those who had lost their life for our faith in the Only One God. At the end I only could follow thousands of my brothers and sisters by leaving the changes in the Baptist community for what they had become, with fear for what they still might become.

Our fear was totally founded. those who left the community had sound reasons, because the church gliding to main protestant church-denominations who believed in a three-une God and would if they were not carefull soon be taken over by other false teachings of those churches.

Today those Baptists are closer to the other protestant and Catholic denominations where it is not necessary to have a sound mind to decide to follow Jesus.

Once a church takes over the Trintiy to get more power and find more people to join them everything can happen to continue in the pagan traditions and to go further away from biblical teachings.

The Southern Baptists could see their churches following their union rules growing in amount. Like many other churches they do have to face the problem not many people are interested in God. Though they do know people do like a lot traditions and festivals. Feast for children having their first year in the lower school or for becoming of age are very popular. A special day for celebrating the by is also very much liked by people.
The Baptist Church also is aware of such events which could attract more people in their church. Like all other churches they saw their number of baptisms going way down.  Converts, new members, and the Millennial generation are unwilling today to commit themselves or to feel bounded by one or the other church denomination. To be baptised as an adult in front of others does not appeal to them. Certainly not going under water in front of so many people, at their age.

It is incredible but it seems that one demographic of Baptists is getting baptised in greater and greater numbers. Normally the rule for baptism was that the person should really know what he or she was choosing for. He should be of age. But the contemporary Baptists do not seem to find that important any more. For them children five and under can also be baptised.


By Lutherans and other protestants such child baptisms also can be found more frequently. In a few years perhaps we shall see also a 'first communion' and a 'holy or second communion' like in the Catholic church, where people, though they do not go to mass regularly, can have a celebration for their kids where they can treat it with many presents and give a great feast for many guests, showing off with bouncy castles, electronic games, firework and exuberant meals for 60, 80- 150 guests, like mini-weddings and their sons and daughters dressed like little princes and princesses or brides.

Credobaptist traditions like the SBC usually baptize children at the “age of accountability” or “age of reason.” The Baptist Faith and Message asserts that children are not morally accountable until they are “capable of moral action.” Based on the coming-of-age celebration in Jewish culture (bar mitzvahs for boys and bat mitzvahs for girls), some place the age of accountability around ages 12 and 13. However, since children develop at different rates, there is latitude on pinpointing personal spiritual maturity. Still, Southern Baptist churches have traditionally said children cannot make a legitimate profession of faith until preadolescence. Thus, baptism is typically reserved for prepubescents on up. . .

Alvin Reid, evangelism professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and task force member, said he suspects the main reason for the increase is

 “well-meaning parents so want their children to follow Jesus that pastors have been pressured and have not taught well biblical conversion and discipleship.”

+++

National Baptist Evangelical Life and Soul Saving Assembly of the U.S.A. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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  Women’s Missionary Union preschool ministry consultant Joye Smith said she hasn’t heard much concern from church leaders. She said she is not concerned about young children being baptized if the family of the child “is actively involved in the church and are going to give the discipling that the child needs in order to grow in faith.”
  Timothy George, founder of Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School, said, “Baptizing younger and younger children is a way of inculturating them to be Baptist.” But George doesn’t believe this trend is favorable for the Baptist tradition. Rather, it “calls radically into question what Baptists have historically said baptism means.”
  
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  Image: Gamma Man / Flickr

  Baptism service at an SBC church in Virginia.
  For the seventh year in a row, the Southern Baptist Convention, America's largest Protestant denomination, has seen a "heartbreaking slide" in baptisms. Last year saw the second-worst total of baptisms in 60 years, and this year the denomination lost more than 105,000 members and 188,000 Sunday worshipers, according to its Annual Church Profile.
  SBC leaders were so grieved over its dwindling evangelistic effectiveness that they appointed a Pastors' Task Force last year to address the stark decline in evangelism and baptism.
  +
  David Galvan, a task force member and pastor of New Life Hispanic Baptist in Dallas, said, "In our church, we have followed the example of W. A. Criswell [former SBC president] and baptize children at nine years of age [and older]." He also said he personally didn't know of any Baptist churches that baptize children under five.
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  The Rev. Ronnie Floyd, pastor of the multicampus Cross Church based in Springdale, was elected as president of the Southern Baptist Convention on Tuesday in Baltimore, with 51 percent of the vote. Floyd will succeed the Rev. Fred Luter, the first black president of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.
• On the Southern Baptist agenda: Get the evangelizers evangelizing (bdtonline.com)
  Baptisms have been going steadily down in the past decade for the first time since records started to be kept in the 1800s, according to the denomination's LifeWay Research. Other LifeWay research about devout Protestants generally shows other measures down as well, such as how often people look for ways to share the gospel or to create intentional relationships with nonbelievers.
  The question of how to function openly as a religious person in an increasingly secular, relativistic culture is not particular to Southern Baptists. Catholic Church leaders have dubbed this the era of the "new evangelization," and the Mormon Church has expanded its online outreach.
  
• Southern Baptist Convention Did Not Do Enough (guardianlv.com)
  Floyd said the Southern Baptist Convention will continue to stand firm on their interpretation of scripture and the belief that it enforces the idea of marriage being between one woman and one man.  He acknowledged that many in the cultural climate would not agree with this but he hopes that Southern Baptists will handle these disagreements with compassion and love in order to bring other people to a right relationship with Jesus. On June 10, the convention also voted in favor of a resolution that stood in opposition to efforts by the government to validate the concept of transgender identity.
  Floyd stated that the stance taken by denominations reflects their idea of the Bible being the final authority and for that reason, cannot be compromised.
• Some Southern Baptist Leaders Are Taking Pride in the Growth of Preschooler Baptisms (patheos.com)
  If you judge your success as a religion by the number of baptisms performed, and the group with the greatest percentage growth in baptisms is kids who aren’t old enough to know what the hell they’re doing, you should crawl into a corner and rethink your life’s work.
  That’s what’s happening in the world of Southern Baptists:
  +
  The SBC believes it’s a sign of success that a bunch of preschool-aged kids are willing to go swimming for a few seconds. Because that’s all this really is for them. Meanwhile, as those children grow up and see how the SBC treats women and LGBT individuals, they’re getting the hell out of there.
  Congrats, SBC. You’re winning a fictional battle and losing an actual war.
  
• Southern Baptist leader: No change on same-sex marriage stance (timesfreepress.com)
  The new president of the Southern Baptist Convention said Wednesday that the denomination won't relax its position on same-sex marriage and transgender identity, even as courts across the country strike down gay marriage bans and the group tries to bolster membership. Southern Baptist Convention President-elect Ronnie Floyd, senior pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas, told The Associated Press that although America's attitude toward gay and transgendered individuals is rapidly changing, the convention does not intend to alter its position that gender identity cannot be different from biological sex and that homosexuality is immoral.
  "We stand strong on what the Scripture says about marriage between a man and a woman. At the same time we do know that we have this issue facing our culture," Floyd said. "But due to the situation today, we must hold the word of God in one hand and the love of God in the other, and have compassion and love to bring people into the fellowship."
  
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  The Rev. Ronnie Floyd told pastors gathering in Baltimore for this week’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention that on the way home from a busy Sunday at church he’s often ready to resign.
• S. Baptist leader: No change on marriage stance (thedailyrecord.com)
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  The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the nation, with 15.7 million members, according to a recent report by the denomination’s publishing arm, Lifeway Christian Resources.
  
• Five Reasons Why Most Southern Baptist Churches Baptize Almost No Millennials (christianitytoday.com)
  
  The "heartbreaking slide" in Southern Baptist baptisms has now entered its seventh year. While the loss of nearly 4,600 baptisms was not as steep as last year's drop, the continued decline (full stats below) is still enough for LifeWay Christian Resources president Thom Rainer to tell Baptist Press, "I am grieved we are clearly losing our evangelistic effectiveness."
  And according to a recent report by a special task force of pastors, the baptism drought in America's largest evangelical denomination—which counts 15.7 million members and 5.8 million Sunday worshipers—is worst among millennials.
  In last year's Annual Church Profile, 60 percent of the more than 46,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) reported no youth baptisms (ages 12 to 17) in 2012, and 80 percent reported only one or zero baptisms among young adults (ages 18 to 29). One in four Southern Baptist churches reported zero baptisms overall in 2012, while the "only consistently growing" baptism group was children under five years old.
  "The problem is even greater than these numbers indicate," states the task force report. "Considering how the North American population has increased substantially between the 1950s' baptism peak and today, these figures indicate how much ground we have lost and are losing."
  Fewer churches are contributing statistics to the denomination's annual report these days. But the task force notes, "Although it would be convenient to blame declining baptisms on declining reporting, our statisticians concluded that we still have a steady decline in baptisms even when a lack of reporting is factored into the equation."
  The report identifies five problems behind the baptism drought

Inculturation today calling for a different attitude

This January the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church told the press he is aware of the fact that the problem of formation today is not easy to deal with:

“Daily culture is much richer and conflictual than that which we experienced in our day, years ago. Ourculture was simpler and more ordered.

Inculturation today calls for a different attitude. For example: problems are not solved simply by forbidding doing this or that.

Dialog as well as confrontation are needed.

To avoid problems, in some houses of formation, young people grit their teeth, try not to make mistakes, follow the rules smiling a lot, just waiting for the day when they are told: ‘Good. You have finished formation.’

In Rio the Pope identified already clericalism as one of the causes of the

 “lack of maturity and Christian freedom” in the People of God.

It follows that:

 “If the seminary is too large, it ought to be divided into smaller communities with formators who are equipped really to accompany those in their charge.

Dialogue must be serious, without fear, sincere. It is important to recall that the language of young people information today is different from that in the past: we are living through an epochal change. Formation is a work of art, not a police action. We must form their hearts. Otherwise we are creating little monsters. And then these little monsters mold the People of God.”

The Pope then insisted on the fact that formation should not be oriented only toward personal growth but also in view of its final goal: the People of God.

It is important to think about the people to whom these persons will be sent while forming hem:

“We must always think of the faithful, of the faithful People of God. Persons must be formed who are witness of the resurrection of Jesus. The formator should keep in mind that the person in formation will be called to care for the People of God.

We always must think of the People of God in all of this. Just think of religious who have hearts that are as sour as vinegar: they are not made for the people. In the end we must not form administrators, managers, but fathers, brothers, travelling companions. ”

Finally, Pope Francis wanted to highlight a further risk:

 “accepting a young man in a seminary who has been asked to leave a religious institute because of problems with formation and for serious reasons is a huge problem.

The pope was not just speaking about people who recognize that they are sinners:

 we are all sinners, but we are not all corrupt.

Sinners are accepted, but not people who are corrupt.”

Nobody can escape temptation except God Who can not be temted. Jesus was tempted more than once but did not go into the temptation and managed to stay clear of sin.

The present pope is not afraid to go away from difficult questions concerning the may priest who had young children in their care, but misused their power. Pope Francis I recalled Benedict XVI’s important decision in dealing with cases of abuse:

“this should be a lesson to us to have the courage to approach personal formation as a serious challenge, always keeping in mind the People of God.”

Religious should be witnesses of the humanizing power of the Gospel through a life of brotherhood.

The present pope does know the problems, but he also knows that the bishops are not always acquainted with the charisms and works of religious. Qe also should ask the question if the local headquarters are willing to inform the higher hierarchy of what is going wrong in their coutnry.

The Belgian Jesuit Jan Berchmans (1599 -1621) knew already very well this problem. True to his favorite mottos: Age quod agis (Do what you are doing well) and Maximi facere minima (Do the most with the least), he succeeded in accomplishing ordinary things in an extraordinary way and became the patron saint of community life.

To come to a healthy community everybody should be honest and open to each other. No secrets should go around. Once matter do have to be covered up, like we have seen the last few years, there is not only something going really wrong, but it also

"creates a pressure cooker that will eventually explode. A life without conflicts is not life.”

It becomes high time that 'bishops' and all those who are to take care of the flock need to understand that consecrated persons are not functionaries but gifts that enrich dioceses.

"The involvement of religious communities in dioceses is important. Dialogue between the bishop and religious must be rescued so that, due to a lack of understanding of their charisms, bishops do not view religious simply as useful instruments.” 

+

Continuation of Church has to grow through witness, not by proselytism

From the "Wake up the world" press conference January 2014

+++

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  On November 29 the Pope met with 120 leaders of men’s religious orders at the Vatican. A full transcript of the three hour question and answer session was published by Jesuit journal, La Civiltà Cattolica, today. Here is a selection of some of the key quotes…
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  What occurred in these days of the cricket matches resembled how Caribbean people celebrated the Liturgy of the Recognition Service held at St. Michael’s Cathedral. It was unlike T20 cricket matches. Perhaps many may state that this disconnect was appropriate. While the St Michael’s congregation was offering to God praise and worship under the Anglican liturgical rubric, “doing things” in decency and order, spectators at our various cricket grounds in Guyana, St Lucia and Barbados were out to have a good time. But one has to question whether our worship in Anglicanism has forced persons to become “liturgically and spiritually schizophrenic”. One behaves one way at work and another way at celebratory events. Lambert St. Rose, a Roman Catholic theologian, in an article entitled, “Keep Traditions, Local Customs and Christianity Together”, lamented that the missionaries who came to St. Lucia treated local heroes, art, music movements, domestic customs and folklore and all we were as a people as, “fetishstre”, superstitious, pagan and barbaric.”
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  As Mumbailaity and Association of Conserned Catholics you seem to be gifted with a charism of the Holy Spirit which is still developing in the early stages. Charisms are always for the growth of the community. You seem to be in the learning curve and will make mistakes till you learn your area of focus.
  Recently you wrote about your annual general body meeting where you decided your goal for the next one year. I do not see it in the content posted regularly on the blog. Instead you seem to be scattering your energies on anything and everything that seems to be going wrong with the administration of the church according to your personal or anyone’s viewpoint. I understand you want to promote freedom of expression so you publish a wide range of topics. However this approach has its drawbacks.
  What is happening is that you are passing judgements and making condemnations in areas which are perhaps not your expertise . e. g. inculturation. As a convert from Hinduism who has respect for the Indian culture inspite of being strictly faithful to the teachings of the catholic church , I personally know how difficult it is for people of non-christian faith to appreciate the Christian faith due to its foreign garb . As Catholics we all have a hierarchy of truths which are expressed in the ‘I Believe’. These are central to the faith whereas ‘kneeling’ or ‘standing’ while receiving Holy Communion is not central to the faith.
• Does the Church still practice exorcism? // How important is so-called "popular piety"? (travismikhailblog.wordpress.com)
  At every Baptism a so-called simple exorcism is performed, a prayer in which the person being baptized is taken away from the devil and is strengthened against the “principalities and powers” that Jesus overcame. Major exorcism is a prayer offered by Jesus’ authority and in his strength through which a baptized Christian is delivered from the influence and power of the devil; the Church rarely uses this prayer, and only after the most rigorous examination.
• Sinners yes, the corrupt no, in seminaries, says Pope Francis (notforattrib.wordpress.com)
  Not to say from what? Italian? Spanish? Other popes nowhere near as quotable, but friends of Francis raised the translation question as to Evangelii Gaudium. I’d like to see that pursued.
• Inculturalization (centrefortransformationanddevelopment.com)
  There can be only one Truth, but there are many ways of communicating and presenting it. The process of making it culturally sensitive and relevant is known as inculturalization. This is a process we cannot ignore. Or else our message can become irrelevant and may cause animosity too.
• Blessed John Paul II and the Church's Missionary Mandate (newhitherthitherandyon.wordpress.com)
  Two years after writing the Apostolic Exhortation, Christifideles laici, John Paul II wrote a major encyclical entitled Redemptoris Missio, On the permanent validity of the Church’s missionary mandate (1990). He writes this document because he observes a negative tendency in which missionary activity specifically directed “to the nations” appears to be waning (RM 2). He reinforces that the Church still believes in the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind (RM 9). Why do we need missions? Because in Christ alone are we set free from all alienation and doubt, he is the Good News for man and women of every age. “Those who are incorporated in the Catholic Church ought to sense their privilege and for that very reason their greater obligation of bearing witness to the faith and to the Christian life as a service to their brothers and sisters and as a fitting response to God”
• The Frontiers of our Evangelization (combonischolasticate.wordpress.com)
  The origin of Religious life is in a well-defined context in the history of the Church. In other words, the challenges faced by concrete historical situations in the history of the Church gave birth to every congregation or religious institute that we have nowadays.  Just as the Scriptures tells us about the action of the Spirit during Pentecost, so also the gospel meditated in those days by the founders was inculturated and lived in different historical and cultural context. It is most importantly worth no to forget our roots and where we come from; not only how our congregation came about but also our Families, friends, etc.
• Understanding Inculturation: Manifestations of Culture (beforecaesar.wordpress.com)
  One way in which culture manifests itself in any society is in the common methods of accomplishing a given function. For instance, our basic human desires lead us to eat, but the distinctive methods we employ to produce, harvest, preserve, prepare, present, and consume the food may vary from society to society. Consider, too, the great variations in societies’ modes of entertainment, our means of production, and in our methods of commerce. This just scratches the surface of cultural methods of accomplishing functions. Implicit within this category is the types of technology employed in the society.
• Atiemo, "Religion and the Inculturation of Human Rights in Ghana" (clrforum.org)
  Based on fieldwork conducted in Ghana, Abamfo Ofori Atiemo here establishes a convergence between human rights and local religious and cultural values in African societies. He argues that human rights represent universal ‘dream values’. This allows for a cultural embedding of human rights in Ghana and other non-Western societies. He argues that ‘dream values’ are usually presented in religious language and proclaimed, for example, by prophets and seers or expressed in certain forms of taboo, proverbs or legal norms. He employs the concept of inculturation, adaptation of the way Church teachings are presented to non-Christian cultures, as a hermeneutical tool for developing a model to understand the encounter between universal human rights and local cultures.